What does N.P mean in a parish register?

[Tex T]

Has anyone got a suggestion for what Notes: N.P might mean in the burial record below? (from lan-opc.org.uk)

Burial: 20 Oct 1890 St Mary the Virgin, Prescot, Lancashire, England
Ann Johnson
Age: 66
Abode: Whiston Union
Notes: N.P
Buried by: J.Jackson curate

In the same time period there are some burials with Notes: R.C and some with Notes: R.C N.P, and for all of these there is no reference to who officiated at the burial, whereas all of the burials where Notes: N.P is shown do have someone officiating. (I am guessing that R.C means Roman Catholic.)

[Fledge]

Non-practising? Just a guess.

[Katie]

I think it could stand for Non Parishioner. Not from the Parish of Prescot. There was a big burial scandal in the latter part of the 1880's were a man out walking his dog stood and watched the burial of a Roman Catholic Pauper who had died in Prescot Union Workhouse being buried. He was amazed to see the grave diggers measuring the coffin and measuring the grave. He sent a letter into the local Prescot Reporter about the matter which in turn caused the Sexton at Prescot refusing to bury any more inmates who died in the Workhouse saying "You can bury your own dead in the grounds of the Workhouse" To cut a long story short they came to some agreement about payment for the burials. So I think a note was made in the Registers of inmates who died, but resided in the other areas of the Union.


Bit of Local History there.

[Katie]

Non-practising? Just a guess.

Could also be Non Practising

[Bertieone]

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/abbrev.html

[Tex T]

Thanks for all your replies.

I am inclined to go with Non Parishioner. If I have the right Ann Johnson she was certainly not a parishioner of St Mary in Prescot, and since posting this question I have found another of my Johnsons who was buried in 1891 with Note: R.C N.P who was also not from that parish.

In fact, scanning quickly through the burials in that year (1890), I have found that Note: N.P has been applied to anyone whose Abode was not listed as Prescot.